This invention relates to a reversible rug and particularly to a rug sculptured on one side, and a method for manufacturing same.
Rugs such as scatter rugs or bathroom rugs are well known. These rugs are made of soft cotton or synthetic yarns and in the case of bathroom rugs, are also water absorbent so that when a person steps unto them coming out from a shower or bathtub the water drops falling on the mat do not accumulate in pools.
Rugs, in general, comprise a tufted fabric having a raised surface of yarn tufts on one side of a primary backing material and a latex under layer to adhere the yarn tufts to the backing. The yarn, such as pile yarn, can be either cut or looped or partly cut and partly looped, to form cut, looped or sculptured rugs on one side only, the other side being either latex or left bare. The backing material is usually made of cotton or synthetic woven or non-woven material. The tufts can be cotton pile or of synthetic fibers. Nylon, and other synthetic filaments such as polyester, have predominantly been utilized as the yarns for tufting bathroom mats because of the resiliency, bulk and strength provided by this type of yarn. Tufting denier nylon filaments have been developed that have the luster level and hand of cotton while retaining the resilience, strength and performance of nylon. Unfortunately these synthetic yarns do not have the absorbency of cotton and are essentially hydrophobic.
More recently, yam producers have developed a hydrophylic microdenier nylon with the absorbency characteristics of cotton or other natural fibers. These nylons are suitable for use in garment fabrics, particularly for sports apparel, to wick moisture from one side of the fabric to the other side of the fabric away from the skin of the wearer or to disburse the moisture throughout the fabric for quick drying of the fabric and to keep the side of the fabric in contact with the skin of the wearer in a dry state. This microdenier nylon is not practical for use in tufted fabrics of the type considered for bathroom mats since it would be too expensive to produce a filament end in the tufting denier range.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,038 discloses a tufted fabric and yam for use in bathroom rugs wherein each of the yarn tufts includes hydrophilic microdenier filaments for wicking and distribution of moisture throughout the raised surface of the fabric and hydrophobic tufting denier filaments for providing resiliency, bulk and strength to the fabric.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a reversible rug with one side of the rug being sculptured.
Another object of the present invention was to provide a reversible rug both sides of which have tufted yarn.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a reversible sculptured rug without adhesives.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an integrally tufted reversible sculptured rug.
A Anther object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing an integrally tufted reversible sculptured rug.
In accordance with tis invention there is provided an integrally tufted reversible sculptured rug comprising:
a first layer of material having a cut tufted first pile yarn forming on one side of the material a non-sculptured rug surface, the other side of the material being the back side,
a second layer of material positioned against the back side of the first material, and
a second pile yarn tufted through both the second and first layers of material fixing the two layers of material together and forming a sculptured surface on the second layer of material,
said second pile yarn being loop-cut at different heights according to a predetermined pattern.
The layers of material may comprise any conventional backing material for tufted fabrics, such as of cotton, woven or non-woven synthetic material. However, it is preferred that the first layer of material be a non-woven synthetic fiber material, such as of non-woven polypropylene, and the second layer material be cotton. The tufting yarn may be cotton pile or synthetic fiber yarns, either single or plied yarns, such as from polyacrylic or polyamide fibers or mixtures of these or with cotton.